


From Shadeshore to Ancients

by NicktheMoon



Series: Old DotA Snippets [1]
Category: Dota 2
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 11:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16831798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicktheMoon/pseuds/NicktheMoon
Summary: A bunch of shorts about Sven, his mum and Crystal Maiden. Characters vary with each.





	1. Beloved Child

Silence.  
For what seemed like a heartbreaking eternity, there was silence; and finally, a beautiful wail.

The meranth sobbed in joy as her newborn cried, cradling him protectively. She had been so afraid, so convinced he would die that she had questioned if she should prepare his grave as she built his crib. But he was here, whole and healthy and soft and perfect. She kissed over his fat cheeks and board forehead, letting her tears baptise him as she was overcome with emotion. Normally they would have been in the meranth birthing pools, surrounded by familiar faces, her sisters and aunties, her own mother…but that wasn’t how it had gone. They only had each other, in their small shanty home, in the cold bathtub.

Curling around her child, she began to whisper to him. Singing softly, she told him the story of a sickly woman and a noble man, of a sweet love between a meranth and a vigil knight. How he broke an unjust code and faced his peers, how his heart was so good that they couldn’t bear it and executed him. How she was shunned by her kin and cast upon the shore as all that was left of their love grew in her belly. The baby has fallen quiet, listening to her sorrowful song. A little hand rested upon her breast. She smiled, exhausted. She wanted to sleep but she wanted to just hold and watch her baby.

Weakly, limbs shaking, she tried to get out of the bath. It was too much effort, to lift herself and her newborn out of the tub. She sank into the embrace of the water. It wouldn’t affect her but she didn’t know how well the baby would fare; she didn’t even know if humans could be born in water. His meranth genes had helped there she thought. It was going to be hard, she knew. This was her first child. Her family didn’t want to know them and her sweet knight was gone. She didn’t know much about hybrid children, so few were born and survived. Her own health was flighty and should anything happen to her, then her baby…No, she couldn’t bear to think about that.

He was still quiet and watching, blue eyes warming her heart. She kissed him again, tasting her own bittersweet tears. Already a stoic, she thought, just like his father. What would Sven have wanted to name their son? She’d never know. Heart at once both light and forever burdened, she leaned back to think. Meranth names were so rarely spoken on land; to only give him such a name would hinder him as they couldn’t return to the sea. But what if he chose to join the meranth as an adult? Wouldn’t Sven have wanted her to give their son a meranth name, just as she had playfully given him one?

A smile lifted her lips. His human name would be Sven, exactly as his father’s. Alone in a cold bathroom, in a shanty house within the Shadeshore Ruins, she began to sing. A slow, beautiful note resonated in their small home, low and tender, full of adoration and speaking of future bravery. It wasn’t exactly the same as what she had used for her darling knight but the meaning was almost identical. While his father had been her ‘dear love’, her little Sven was her ‘most beloved’.


	2. Mother's Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sven's mum reflects as her health gradually gets worse.

On the beach of the Shadeshore Ruins there stood a humble hut. From this hut the gentle singing of a meranth could be heard, voice trembling weakly on the high notes.

It seemed so long ago that she had been with her knight, looking forward to starting a family with him. Now he slept under a stone on the beach and the babe that had slept in her womb had grown into a quiet, headstrong boy. Her beloved Sven; Thinking of him made her heart swell and ache in equal measure. He had grown up so well. Brave, noble and strong, he reminded her so much of his father. He could be solemn and brooding but he was never bad-natured. And as her strength left her, her little Sven tended to her as best as he could.

Her health was the source of her heart’s pain however. She had been slowly deteriorating and growing weaker ever since she had given birth. She had hoped then prayed that it would pass but her pleas had gone unanswered. The diagnosis was clear in her mind; she would die. Every morning she awoke, grateful for another day no matter how painful her joints were or how laboured each breath became. Fate had been cruel but she couldn’t, she wouldn’t let Sven suffer at its hands. Her son needed her! What would he do if she passed on? Who would care for the hybrid child of an executed knight and a forsaken meranth?

Hearing her sorrowful song, Sven appeared and hovered by the door.   
“Mama?” She smiled and motioned for him to sit on their shared bed. He crossed the small room delicately and hopped up, crawling to curl up beside her. Cradling him to her chest, tears welled in her eyes. He deserved so much more than she had been able to give him, and even that might be taken away.   
“Sven, I have something very important to discuss with you.”  
“Mama, you’re crying.” His small hand reached up to wipe away a tear, almost wringing a sob from his mother. She took his hand in hers and kissed it.

“Please listen carefully because this is so important. One day, I might not be here anymore.”  
“Where will you be?”  
“With your father.” The look on Sven’s face was heartbreaking.  
“But you said he’s gone…I don’t want you to go!”  
“Shhh,” she soothed, squeezing his hand as he huddled closer in distress, “I don’t want to go either! But I haven’t been well in a very long time and there’s some things you need to know in case it happens.”  
“If I don’t listen then nothing can happen to you.” His stubborn tone brought a bittersweet smile to her face.  
“That’s not how it works darling. Now, listen-”   
“No!”  
“Sven, please!” Peeking up at her stern tone he sagged against her unwillingly, letting his head rise and fall with each breath she took.

“I want you to be safe and happy. People will be unkind and cruel to you, because you’re half meranth and half man. Never take their words to heart. Work hard but take care of yourself, otherwise you’ll be tired and hurt at the end of every day. Be kind to girls, especially the ones you like or want to be friends with.” There was too much to say, too many life lessons to give at once. Hopefully this would be enough, hopefully she would live long enough for this conversation to seem foolish in hindsight.

“The most important thing I want you to remember is that I love you. I always have and always will, no matter what happens.”  
“I knew that.” Sven’s little voice piped up.  
“Did you really?”  
“I knew you loved me! And I love you, this much-!” He sat back onto his knees and held his arms out as wide as he could, face gaining colour through strain as he stretched. Starting to laugh, the meranth sat up to scoop him into a cuddle. They held each other tightly, until a kiss was planted on the top of Sven’s head.  
“Will you help me make some soup for dinner?”  
“Of course Mama.” Together they got up – Sven with the speed and eagerness of youth, his mother with the careful, slow movements of the fragile – and headed to the small kitchen.


	3. Home is where your heart is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sven and Rylai reflect on home

“Do you know how to dance?” Rylai asked, as she and Sven walked side-by-side through the forest. Sven froze.  
“No.” His tone said it all; hesitant and short. He didn’t know and he didn’t want to try either.  
“Oh, it’s fine!” His companion giggled. “I don’t know either!”  
“But when you cast your ice storm-”  
“It’s a spell! Dancing is different, it’s not trying to call your home to you.”  
“That’s what it is? Your freezing field?”

“Yeah.” Rylai sighed softly. “I miss Icewrack…there’d be miles and miles of snow, with only the wolves and frost owls for company. The days were freezing and the night’s bright, with how the snow glowed! I’ll have to show you sometime.”  
“Ha! You’d have to warn me when you do, so I can find some furs.” Rylai giggled, glad he hadn’t outright refused the proposal. But maybe he hadn’t quite caught her tone either. It was hard to tell when he always wore that helm of his! A thought struck her and she hummed, smiling.  
“Do you have a place like that? Somewhere you just feel is home, in your heart?” Sven looked at the ground, continuing to walk again.

In his mind’s eye, he was walking on sand. The steady beat of a dirty tide as it clambered and slipped from the beach in rhythm. Away from a small town of slum houses was a small hut, slightly off the path and hidden. Tiny and poorly built, with only three rooms inside. Further down the beach were two stones; one green in seaweed and salt, the other only beginning to be covered by the elements. Seashells gathered at their base as flowers wouldn’t last as long, especially in this climate. Under them slept a knight and a meranth, together again.   
“Yes.”

“What’s it like?” He glanced to Rylai, catching her eager curiosity. He hummed, debating with himself on what to say next.   
“I haven’t been there in years, so I don’t know what it’s like now. It was quiet though. Nearby the sea.”   
“Ooh! I haven’t been to the beach in forever!” The Crystal Maiden stepped in front of him, forcing his attention on her. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll take you to Icewrack, with furs, and you’ll take me to your beach sometime!” She even fluttered her eyelids. Sven’s heart skipped several long beats.  
“I- Take me to Icewrack first. If I survive the cold, then we can talk about the beach.”  
“Okay!” Rylai grinned, restraining herself from celebrating too much. She returned to his side, catching his arm to quicken his pace from glacial to human speed as they walked. “I’ll have to show you the Blueheart Glacier! And the wolves, and how the stars light up the snow-”

Sven listened as Rylai told him of her home, even as he still heard the distant rhythm of surf upon sand.


End file.
